


The Picture in the Bedroom

by theycallme_ook



Series: baby catch au (get it, instead of snatch?) [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman Beyond
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Batfamily (DCU), Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Domestic Batfamily (DCU), Gen, Good Sibling Dynamics, plz i just want them to be happy, they love each other ok??
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29846982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theycallme_ook/pseuds/theycallme_ook
Summary: Amanda Waller firmly believes that the world needs Batman. She also believes that the world needs to be prepared for the death of Bruce Wayne, so she creates a plan to ensure that the title of Batman lives on.Unfortunately for her, the plan fails.Fortunately for everyone else, the plan fails.(Or, the Batfam raises Terry from infancy au.)
Relationships: (Minor) Stephanie Brown/Cassandra Cain, Batfamily Members & Terry McGinnis, Bruce Wayne & His Kids
Series: baby catch au (get it, instead of snatch?) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2194320
Comments: 10
Kudos: 89





	The Picture in the Bedroom

**Author's Note:**

> new multi chap fic! dang if writing doesn't take an actual age but, listen, mate. sometimes you just gotta make the cotton candy levels of sweet fluff you wanna see in the world. this is what I live for

It had all started when Bruce had been hacking into CADMUS files to get some information he needed for a Justice League case. He had been searching for anything that might help with the string of recent metahuman abductions, going through their database to see if they had records of, and possibly a hand in, the victims. He had found a few files that seemed promising, nabbed them and was about to go when the computer decrypted a file that looked interesting. 

‘Project Batman Beyond’ it was titled. Vague, sinister and probably the type of thing he wanted to stop CADMUS from doing ASAP. He felt a twinge of frustration as he grabbed a copy of that file too and exited their systems. Couldn’t they ever take a break from half-baked plans to control superheroes and/or governments? Honestly, if this whole “Batman Beyond” business was some weird scheme to, like, mind control him or copy his brainwaves or something, he was going to… who knows. Leave Amanda Waller in the middle of a highway somewhere and make her walk to the nearest town. Steal all her hand towels. Egg and TP her house. Just, _something_ to get back at her for all the stupid BS she had put him through over the years.

Bruce exhaled as he stood from the chair, knees and wrists popping as he stretched them. He would take a quick break, grab a slice of toast and look over the files for the metahuman case, then if he had time he’d take a look at the Batman Beyond file, too. 

_Hopefully it isn’t anything urgent_ . He thought as he climbed the stairs en route to the kitchen, and maybe the bathroom. _I have enough on my plate as it is_.

Unfortunately, this wish, like many other wishes of Bruce Wayne, was not to be.

\--

He found a spare moment the next morning to glance over the file. There wasn’t much, just the names of a couple people working on it, a location and a mission statement to “Ensure the mission of the Batman lives on.” whatever that was supposed to mean. Unfortunately, he was rather tied up in the League case at the moment, but this still needed to be shut down so… he ran through a quick mental list of who might be available to delegate this to, then pulled up a map of the lab location mentioned on file. It was only a few states away, and as per his last check in, Jason and his friends were still in the area. Bruce opened up the phone app and hit dial. Hopefully Jason wasn’t busy and could cover this. Bruce knew he wasn’t the only one willing to give CADMUS a bad time. He might even drop a couple hints that the Outlaws would get no reprimand from him for any… wanton property damage.

The dial tone was suddenly cut off by a cheeky “What’s cracking, old man? Besides your bones, I mean.”

Bruce smiled.

“Hi, Jay, I was just wondering if you and your friends would be willing to look into something for me.”

“Depends. What is it?”

“A CADMUS initiative by the name of Project Batman Beyond…”

\--

Five days later a dark gray sedan Bruce hadn’t seen before pulled into the Batcave and Jason climbed out of the driver's seat dressed in civvies. Bruce, who had been at the computer finishing up the report on the metahuman kidnapping case, went down to meet him. 

By the time he had reached the car, Jason had circled round to the middle row of the passenger's side, yanked the door open, and was now fiddling around with a couple buckles by the sound of it.

“How’d it go?” he asked the back of his son’s head.

“Fine. Your info was good and it wasn’t too hard to handle, but uhh… you might wanna brace yourself, pops. ” here Jason paused to lean in and scoop something up, his nervous tone and hushed voice setting Bruce on edge more than his words. Whatever it was couldn’t be too terribly threatening, or Jason would have never brought it to the cave- but it still obviously disturbed the young latino man, which was enough to make Bruce wary.

“This… is Project Batman Beyond.” said Jason, turning to reveal a... baby. Sleeping and tucked safely against his chest. Now, Bruce has had the wind knocked out of him plenty of times, he knew he wasn’t actually short of breath right now, but… it sure felt like it.

“What-” he paused to swallow the inexplicable lump in his throat, “What’s their name?” 

“I don’t think they gave him one.” Jason said with a scowl, shoulders hunching to further wrap himself around the baby in a way that was probably subconscious. "We found their lab, grabbed him and the info then ditched the place. They had plans to send him to live with a couple who they were gonna have killed right in front of himl to recreate your trauma. Which, I mean, is so _stupid_ I just-" the young man let out a frustrated huff. "I dunno. I'm still pretty pissed."

Bruce put a hand on Jason's shoulder in comfort, but his gaze was firmly fixed on the small bundle in his second eldest's arms. A son. Another son. He supposed it wasn't a shock in the same way Damian had been, finding out that he had a biological child, but Damian had been ten and this one was... was a nameless baby. An infant that someone had thought to inflict the same pains and sorrows that he had endured- the very thing that he had set out to prevent by becoming Batman. It made him unspeakably angry, but he pushed it aside for now in favor of reaching out and brushing the top of his very small, very soft son's head.

"What do you want to name him?"

Bruce stared at Jason in incomprehension for a moment.

"What?" he said.

"The kid, B. He needs a name. Kory, Roy and I have just been calling him 'baby' this whole time."

"Oh." oh indeed. He may have been the father to a right swarm of kids, but he had never once had to _name_ any of them. The thought sent him on quite a loop. "I- I don't know. I'll think about it."

Jason shrugged, but the motion did nothing to disturb the baby's sleep. "Fine by me. Just don't name him something stupid like Eustace or whatever."

Bruce managed to crack a small smile at the joke, but his focus was pulled back to the baby when the boy made a little noise. It was just a babble, but Bruce was suddenly stuck by how absolutely _tiny_ the little guy was. Lying comfortably in the crook of Jason's arm, with those pudgy little cheeks and a small wisp of hair on the top of his head, Bruce didn't even realize he had reached out to hold him till Jason was gently relinquishing the child into his grasp. 

"Congrats, I guess." said Jason.

"Thanks." mumbled Bruce absently, still enraptured by the sight of this very _very_ small human in his arms.

"Do you want me to call the others?"

"Sure." were all children's fingernails that small? They had to be, right? He had dealt with infants before, why was this suddenly so new to him?

"You gonna be okay?"

"Hmm?" wow the baby's ears were small. "Oh, yeah, I just..."

"...just what?"

"I, uh... go wash up."

Bruce could tell Jason was giving him an unimpressed raised eyebrow, though he never looked away from his much smaller son. Very small. So small. How were they so small? Small and fragile and completely helpless. He had contemplated that before, how human young were useless on their own and totally reliant on older caregivers. It would be inefficient as a survival model without such strong parental instincts in their species, and now he had a helpless baby of his own. It was more than a little humbling. It was also terrifying. What if he messed up and broke it? He had handled babies in a pinch, sure, but never for longer than a couple hours. He knew _how_ to take care of infants, of course, his nightlife demanded he never be unprepared for something so vital, but he had never been responsible for _raising_ any of those children. All of his kids had at least come to him knowing how to sit on their own. And crawl. And eat.

Jason sighed.

"Dad, you're in shock. I'm gonna go get Alfred before you're lost to us forever."

"Hn."

\--

“Luuucy I’m hooome!” cried Jason as he burst into the kitchen. He didn’t know where anyone was, but since it was mid-afternoon on a Wednesday, there was a good chance that someone was at least close enough to the kitchen to hear him. Sure enough, Duke was right there pouring himself a glass of water.

“Heyo, Jas _on_.” said Duke, stressing the ‘on’ so it sounded like ‘ahn’ instead of ‘n’.

“Hey, weirdo. Do you know where Alfred is?”

Duke shrugged. “Upstairs, maybe? Why, what do you need him for?”

“You’ll see. Just go call everyone down to the cave. B’s got something to show you.”

“Everyone in the house, or everyone?” asked the younger, curiosity piqued.

“Everyone in the house is fine. It’s not urgent or anything, and they’ll all find out soon.”

Duke nodded and then downed his water like a shot before getting his phone out to text the group chat. Jason used his own phone to call Alfred directly while pouring some water in a kettle to heat for the bottle of formula he was making the baby. It had been strange, these past few days, having to take care of his newest quite-literally-a-baby brother. He and his team had spent a couple days casing the place, broken in on the third and spent the following two days driving back to Gotham with much more caution than they had probably ever exhibited. Their group had originally planned to part ways yesterday, back when Bruce first called, but due to their little complication, both Kory and Roy had deigned to escort him and the kid pretty much to the Batcave doorstep.

_“Master Jason?”_ came the sound of Alfred’s voice over speaker.

“Hey, Al.”

_“How are you, young sir?”_

“I’m good. Just got home. I’m actually calling to ask you to go check on Bruce. He’s down in the cave and could probably use some emotional support right now.”

_“I see. Could I perhaps be clued into what I’m supporting him through?”_

“Nothing bad, don’t worry! I just think his brain is still loading, so he shouldn’t be left alone too long.”

From the silence Jason could tell Alfred was not amused by how cagey he was being, but Duke was right there and he didn’t want to spoil the surprise just yet so…

_“Very well then. I’ll see what I can do.”_

“Good luck!”

_“Thank you, sir.”_ said Alfred, then hung up.

Jason checked the water temperature, decided it seemed fine, so he mixed in the correct amount of formula and poured it into the baby bottle they had purchased on the frantic supply run to the nearest Walmart after the CADMUS raid and poured a drop on his wrist to double check that the temperature was indeed suitable. Still being careful to hide it from Duke’s view, he stashed the bottle in his pocket and turned around. 

“So, what’s the word?”

“Damian and Tim are on their way down. Cass is out on a date with Steph but they could potentially be back in thirty. Dick says he can come after work and Barb wants to know just how big of a deal it is before she commits, otherwise she’ll come for dinner.”

“Tell her to come if she can. It’s kinda an important announcement.”

“Kay.”

Privately, Jason took out his own phone and texted Babs _‘no checking security cameras- you’ll ruin the surprise!!!’_

She texted back ‘ _I h8 surprises but if it really isn’t life threatening ig I can hold off 4 a bit’_

_‘Its a good surprise. I think. You’ll probably love it’_

_‘all my fears, dashed in an instant’_

_‘Just another day on the job, my fine lady’_

_‘you’ve enticed me. I’ll be over in 20’_

_‘Wait wait wait. do u have any cards that say congrats??’_

_‘no but i have blanks, why?????’_

_‘Bring one and write congrats B on it’_

_‘???’_

_‘ok ig’_

Jason smirked and put his phone away at the sound of Tim and Damian entering the room.

“Brethren.” he began, addressing the three before him. “I suppose you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you here today.”

“Father has something to show us in the cave?” said Damian in a deadpan.

“Yes.”

“What is it?”

“Oh, just a little something I picked up on that mission he sent me.”

“You were on a mission? I thought that’s just what you, Roy and Kory say when you wanna go bar hop in St. Louis or something.” jeered Tim.

“No. We bar hop in Des Moines, not St. Louis.”

“That’s literally worse.”

“Your _face_ is literally worse, so shut the frik up. Anyways, I just wanted to give you all this chance to prepare yourself emotionally for the event you’re about to experience. It won't kill you. Maybe.” announced Jason, striding past them and into the hallway. 

“Way to hype up the Hitchcock bomb theory.” muttered Duke as the three followed him to the study.

“Thanks. It’s my film studies major.”

“You haven't been to college.”

“It’s my secret film studies major. Obtained secretly. The university didn’t even know I got it.”

“That’s just forgery.”

“Not if you attend all the classes it’s not!” said Jason, inputting the combination and swinging the clock open. “Then it’s just thievery.”

The four began their descent into the cave, but were shortly met by Alfred, who was walking up.

“Oh!” said the elderly man when he saw them. He was looking a little frazzled by normal people standards, which for Alfred was quite the feat. “Master Jason, I see now what you meant. In fact, I was going now to prepare some-”

“I got food ready, Al. No need.”

“I- thank you for that, my boy. Still, I need to run to the store to purchase the rest of the necessary supplies. And of course, we’ll need to prepare a room and outlet covers and come up with all the necessary papers and…” Alfred’s voice trailed off as he moved past them and up to the house, the boys exchanging looks at the man’s strange behavior before all eyes once again landed on Jason.

“What did you get, a chimpanzee?” demanded a baffled Damian.

Jason smirked. “Something like that.” and turned to continue down the stairs. It was a good thing Alfred was making a store run, he and the gang had only picked up the bare essentials- more focused on getting out of Dodge and back to Gotham without killing the poor lad. Plus, Jason knew being a busybody was Alfred’s way of decompressing and dealing with the situation. He would be fine after a little therapy shopping.

As they reached the end of the tunnel blocking their view of the rest of the cave, Jason turned back and held a finger to his lip and hissed, “Be quiet, ok? We don’t want to wake him.”

“ _Him_ ?” echoed Tim. “ _Did_ you get a chimpanzee?”

Jason didn’t dignify that with a response, choosing instead to keep walking till he could see the whole cave, quickly spotting Bruce standing transfixed in the very spot he had left him almost fifteen minutes ago. Conveniently, he was still standing faced towards the car, thus hiding the baby from his brother’s sight for just a little longer.

“Oh my gosh.” whispered Duke upon seeing Bruce. “He totally did get a chimpanzee.”

Jason approached Bruce at a brisk walk so he could turn and place himself in a position to watch his brother’s reactions as they finally came close enough to see-

“Baba I was _kidding-_ is that an actual chimpanzee?”

Bruce startled (actually startled, man he was whipped) and turned to stare in confusion at his youngest- well, second youngest, now.

“A chimpanzee…?”

“Oh my lord, guys, shut up about chimpanzees, it’s clearly a human baby.” groaned Jason.

“I can see that now!” hissed Damian in a whisper-shout. “What is it doing _here_ , though?”

“Well, boys,” began Bruce, taking in the shocked expressions of the small group before him. “This appears to be your new brother.”

Silence.

“Are you sure?”

Bruce shrugged.

“Alfred’s running the DNA test, but Jay found him in a CADMUS lab. They were trying to make a new Batman, in a sense.”

That made Damian tense. 

“Don’t they know there’s, like, a bajillion of us?” asked Duke, Tim nodding along.

“Something could always happen.” was Bruce’s pessimistic response. “Besides, if who I think is behind this, _is_ behind this, they would want a bit more insurance than someone potentially taking up the mantle in the future.”

“And who do you think is behind this?”

“I would need to look through the info Jason grabbed to be sure, but I highly suspect Amanda Waller.”

“Yeah, we got that vibe from the stuff we looked through.” said Jason.

“So she was gonna what, train him from birth? Don’t people who usually do that end up as whackjobs?” said Duke.

“Cassandra turned out fine.” protested Tim at the same time Damian said, “I’m standing _right here_.”

“Yeah, and you’ve both turned up with boatloads of trauma the size of the Titanic. Trained fighter from birth is a very easy villain origin story.”

“That wasn’t the plan.” cut in Jason before Damian could come up with a retort to Duke’s (totally factual) statement. “They were gonna adopt him out and then recreate the Wayne murders.”

All eyes turned back to the sleeping infant.

“Because that’s totally not top villain origin story number two.” scoffed Duke.

“It doesn’t matter.” said Bruce, snuggling the baby just a little bit closer. “What matters is that we have him here now, and that we prevent CADMUS from doing this again.”

A moment passed where they all let that sink in, which Jason utilized to survey everyone’s reactions. Duke’s anger had faded into curiosity as he stepped forward to get a closer look at the baby, Tim had his bland, ‘I don’t know how to handle this situation please help’ face on, and Damian was doing his best to mask his insecurities behind his signature haughty expression. 

_Oh boy,_ thought Jason, we’re really gonna have to work on that one. The fifteen year old had been doing well as of late, but he wouldn’t be shocked if this brought on a relapse into ten year old Damian behavior.

Surprisingly, the next words out of Damian’s mouth were a tender “What’s his name?”, so maybe they had less to worry about than Jason initially feared.

Bruce simply shook his head.

“They didn’t give him one.” supplied Jason.

Damian’s scowl was back, but this time not directed at the child.

“They _what?”_ he spat, fury filled eyes meeting Jason’s in hopes of finding an answer. “How could they just _not_ give him a name? He- he’s a person, not a thing! Not just some weapon that they can control and manipulate however they-”

“Damian, you’ll wake him-”

“Damian, buddy, shh.” said Duke, interrupting the younger boy’s growing tirade with a side-hug that made Damian freeze before letting the tension drain out of his shoulders, but the noise had already caused the kid to stir.

“We’re not going to let anything like that happen to him.” said Bruce softly, shifting his grip to something more secure as the baby began to wake. Bruce shot Jason a pleading look, but Jason just informed him that it was about time for the kid to be fed, anyways. Bruce nodded and then looked again to Damian. Holding the baby up a little he asked “Would you like to hold him?”

Damian’s eyes widened, and he almost stepped back to counteract the little nudge Duke gave him, but instead stepped forward to hesitantly reach out for the boy. Bruce was just showing Damian how to properly support the baby’s head when the kid opened his eyes and Damian just kinda. Froze. In much the same manner that Bruce had upon first seeing the infant, actually. Brown irises met brown as both boys stared at each other in wide-eyed wonder. Then the baby reached up to pat Damian’s chin, to wich Damian’s response was to let out a soft “Oi”, which for some reason made the kid smile.

“Ah!” cried the baby, giving Damian’s chin another pat- and Jason could swear that if you put Damian’s cells under a microscope right now, they’d be melting. _Heaven help whichever idiot decides to pick on that kid with Damian around,_ thought Jason. But then again, it’s not like he wouldn’t do the exact same thing.

Damian stared at the baby for another long moment before looking back up to Bruce, who was smiling down at the both of them.

“What will his name be, baba?”

Bruce’s smile grew wider.

“I’m not sure yet, Damian. Why don’t you help me pick one?” 

Suddenly, like a dark cloud being blown away, the fear and insecurity in Damian’s expression was replaced by a radiant smile.

\--

The next to arrive in the cave was Barbara, who emerged from the elevator, saw them all crowded around the Batcomputer’s chair (where Jason was instructing Damian on how to properly bottle feed a baby), wheeled over to Bruce and presented him with a white card that had ‘CONGRATULATIONS’ written in turquoise sharpie across the front.

“I guess I know why I was told to bring this. How’d you get this one?”

“CADMUS,” said Bruce simply.

“Huh. Something of a Superboy situation, then?”

“Hopefully not that similar. The DNA and blood work should be done within the next couple hours, though. Then we’ll know for sure.”

Barbara hmm’d. “The kids seem to be taking it well.”

“They are,” Bruce agreed, a proud smile making itself known. “I think this will be good for them. Damian especially.”

“I’d hate to be the guy between Dami and that kid. What’s their name, by the way? Jason’s forcing us all to come be surprised in person.”

“CADMUS didn’t give him one,” said Bruce, his smile tightening around the edges. “Damian and I are going to decide.”

“That’s cute, just don’t name him Clarence.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow. “What do you have against the name Clarence?”

“It was the first thing that came to mind,” Barbara admitted with a shrug. “But seriously, before you pick a name, make sure to think of all the ways elementary kids could make fun of it.”

“Is this because you have an old fashioned name?”

“In part, but also because you don’t want to name a kid something that rhymes with ‘stupid’.”

“Duly noted.”

The pair watched as the newest acquisition finished the bottle, and then as Jason showed Damian how to burp a baby.

“Hey, how do you know so much about babies, Jay?” asked Tim.

“It’s called _Google_ , Timbit. I use the magic of the world wide web.”

“Google? Isn’t that a bit newfangled for you, Todd?”

“Don’t you start, twerp. You can’t even play the ‘youngest child’ card, anymore.”

\--

A few minutes later, Cass and Steph came into view of the group and made their way over hand in hand until Cass caught sight of today’s item of interest and froze, eyes wide.

“Babe?” said Steph, looking back to Cass before scrutinizing the group closer. When she saw the baby, her eyes went as wide as Cass’s and they both turned their matching expressions of shock and anticipation towards Bruce.

“Is that what I think it is?” said Steph quickly, voice strained with excitement as Cass waited beside her with bated breath.

“If you’re thinking that the baby is my son, then yes, your deductive skills are working.” said Bruce with a smile.

Cass then released Steph’s hand to do a happy little dance with a lot of hand flapping and hopping before hugging her girlfriend, then skipping over to hug her dad, then Barbara, then over to get a closer look at the baby currently being held by Tim, all the while chanting an ecstatic “Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!”

Steph let out a laugh of delight at Cass’s reaction, then going over to Bruce to give him her own hug before joining Cass, who was now holding the kid herself and staring down at him in wonder.

“He’s so small.” cooed Cass, wiggling her fingers in front of the baby’s nose. The child laughed.

“And doesn’t behave like you at all, B. Good job, kid.” said Steph, shooting a teasing grin in Bruce’s direction. He just rolled his eyes.

“What’s his name?”

“He doesn’t have one, yet. Damian and I are going to pick.”

Both girls nodded in acceptance of this, then Steph started to tickle the baby’s foot, which turned his laughter into shrieks of delight as he tried and failed to move his feet out of Steph’s reach.

“Who’s the mother?” asked Steph.

“The CADMUS files said her maiden name is Mary Paek, and that she was selected for her psychological similarities to Martha Wayne. Also that they got her eggs by sequencing her DNA and creating them in a lab, so she probably has absolutely no idea she has a son. Oh, and that Mary and her husband were looking to adopt so CADMUS was going to give them the baby, anyways.” answered Jason.

“ _Well_ ,” began Steph, both eyebrows having hiked up during Jason’s explanation. “We don’t have time to unpack all _that_ . But, the good news for you, Little Guy, is that you’re half Korean! Which means we’re gonna start keeping some decent spicy food in this house, because we wouldn’t want to deprive him of that connection to his culture, _right_ , Bruce?”

Bruce made a face of indignation. “We go to the Noorani’s market every week, Steph. Damian’s taken me to Tarbooshe’s too.”

“And I’m sure you’ve embarrassed him every time.”

The man rolled his eyes. “I’m not-”

“-a _complete_ embarrassment, baba. And for that I thank you, truly. But Stephanie is right, we should endeavor to foster that connection. It’s important for one’s emotional well being to be a part of something greater than themselves.” said Damian, which Cass emphasized by making a sweeping gesture of presentation before going straight back to tickling the baby.

Bruce’s soft smile was back. His cheek muscles might actually get some definition at this rate.

“Sounds like a plan, son.”

\--

"Is- is that a _baby_?" cried a voice. Everyone (except the baby) whipping their heads around to find Dick, still in business casual with a messenger bag slung over his shoulder, rooted to his spot in the living room doorway.

“Uh,” said charming, charismatic CEO and public personality, Bruce Wayne, who was currently lying stomach-down on a blanket with his infant son.

“Old man’s still got it.” said Jason, filling in for Bruce’s loss of language command. He had gotten marginally better in the hours since the revelation, but still seemed to be having trouble focusing on anything that wasn’t the twenty two inch child before him for more than a minute at a time.

"Oh." said Dick, mild horror creeping into his voice. “...Really?”

“No. CADMUS made him.”

“ _Oh_.” said Dick again, this time with audible relief. “Just don’t disappear again, Bruce. I already have one of your kids on my plate.”

“No worries, Dickarooni. I’ve already claimed this one in the ‘Adopt-A-Wayne’ program.”

“Boys, honestly-”

“I’m holding you to that one, Jace.” Dick said with a suspicious side-eye. “I want a written contract.”

“I only do legal work in fifty-two size font.”

“ _Boys-_ ”

Tim, ignoring the banter of his elder brothers, shifted slightly from where he was lying on his side next to the blanket to look Bruce in the eye and, in the whisper of someone who’d just realized the axe murderer was right behind them, said “I’d be next in line for the Adopt-A-Wayne program, B. Don’t do this to me.” which Bruce responded to by not responding at all. Wisely choosing to instead refocus on playing peek-a-boo with the baby.

Soon the talk pittered out and Dick set his bag down on the couch, cleaned his hands with a little hand sanitizer and sat himself down next to Bruce, reaching out to the tiny kid who was now staring at him in awe.

“Hi there, buddy.” he said, smile growing when the baby reached out and took a finger in his fist. He wiggled his finger up and down in the imitation of a handshake. “I’m Dick. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Ah!” squealed the child.

“Yeah?”

“Ah.”

“Tell me about it.”

Dick looked over at Bruce, ready to tease him about a baby having better conversational skills than a forty six year old, but was struck silent by his dad’s smile. It wasn’t the award winning smile of Brucie, nor the confident smirk of Batman. It was whole and real and all _Bruce_. It was the smile Dick had seen for the first time when he’d brought home a silly little art piece from school to show Bruce. The smile he’d seen again when Bruce had let himself be shoved out of the kitchen by a twelve year old Jason. Again when Tim had been excitedly ranting about the invention of the camera one evening, and when Stephanie had randomly given him a ‘get well soon’ because he “needed all the help he could get”, and when Cass had recited one of his favorite poems, and when Damian had made them all ox blood soup, and when Duke had sat them all down for a disastrously fun family D&D session. It was a smile that meant love. 

Which is why it was Dick’s favorite.

“What’s that one quote? Power has limits, but the heart can always grow?”*

“Something like that,” murmured Bruce.

“We should get it framed.”

“Mmhm.”

The baby cooed, pulling Dick’s finger into his mouth and gumming on it.

“What’s his name?”

“Dami and I are going to decide.”

“Need any suggestions?”

“Jason told me not to name him Eustace, Barbara told me not to name him Clarence.”

“Ah. Don’t name him Scrubb, then, either.”

“Do you all have names you passionately hate? Should I take a tally?”

“No, it’s a reference, dad.”

Damian came to sit by him as the conversation lulled. Dick took the opportunity to press a quick kiss to his temple while slinging an arm around the boy’s shoulder, his other hand still being held prisoner. He had wondered, during those awful nights in juvie, whether he’d ever have a big family again. Raged at the unfairness of being taken from all that he had. Despaired at the thought of being alone forever. A little bird separated from his flock. It had been hell at the time, but every now and again he thought of his little eight year old self and smiled. He wished he could talk to him. Let him know things would turn out alright. _‘Look!’_ he’d say to himself, _‘You’ll be ok! You’ll love and be loved in so many ways! You’ll have a family! You’ll never forget your first one, they’ll never stop being your family, but the heart grows! You will grow to fit all the love it will hold, and isn’t that worth living for?’_

“Sorrow shared is sorrow halved, but joy shared is joy doubled,” said Duke suddenly, breaking the comfortable silence that had come over all of them.**

“That’s a good one.” mumbled Cass.

“I could do calligraphy for it.” offered Damian.

“If you wouldn’t mind,” said Bruce.

“Of course not, baba.”

The baby laughed as Dick wrestled his finger out of the kid’s mouth, Bruce and Damian’s own chuckles joining in when the boy went cross eyed trying to follow Dick’s finger booping his little nose.

“Well, since we’re all feeling so lovey dovey.” Jason sighed, rolling off the couch and crawling over to wrap his arms around Bruce. “Group hug everybody. Get your butts over here.”

Their ‘group hug’ ended up looking more like a family dogpile, with the baby watching on in curiosity as each member tried hard not to get crushed while still crushing the others from the safety of Barbara’s lap. It made for an amazing photo that Barbara presented to Alfred with glee when the man came to the room to announce that dinner was served.

“We’ll have to get that one printed.” he said, smile bright.

“I’ll take a dozen.” chimed Bruce, beaming as he examined the photo over Barbara’s other shoulder, then down at the baby in his arms, who was paying full attention to the fascinating phenomena that was the ability to move his own fingers. “Welcome to the family, son.”

**Author's Note:**

> ok ok ok so. thoughts? did the dialogue feel sibling-y? did the relationships seem warm? in character? it made me happy to write so I hope it makes y'all happy to read. my original one-sentence prompt was 'batfam falls in love w baby Terry' and I hope the cuteness delivered.  
> this chap was originally gonna be split into two but I went stupid last night and wrote the last thousand words in one go so,, yay
> 
> *i’m paraphrasing this one.
> 
> **both of these quotes are from the mouth of Shmi Skywalker in fanfic excerpts I have saved on my phone. If I can find the fics I’ll link them, but know that they’re somewhere out there in Shmi tag on Ao3.


End file.
